MORE than 1.5 million people were left homeless by a cyclone in Bangladesh in which hundreds are reported to have died, relief officials said yesterday.
Officials, police and the Cyclone Preparedness Centre (CPC) in Chittagong said yesterday afternoon that the current death toll of 119 might rise, with some 1,500 fishermen still missing in the Bay of Bengal, the officials said.
"Many of them may not return eventually," one official in Cox's Bazaar said.
"The death count may go up but we don't expect any dramatic rise," one CPC official said.
The UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) in Geneva said the cyclone had killed at least 200 people.
It also reported widespread destruction of houses after the cyclone roared in from the Bay of Bengal on Monday, battering coastal areas with 125 mph winds and a tidal surge.
A DHA statement said the government of the south Asian nation was trying to assess the damage in disaster hit areas. UN relief officials are to take part in an airborne survey mission with donor representatives today.
Officials on Tuesday night said nearly 400,000 houses had been damaged and 15,000 cattle killed. More than 1.5 million people were made homeless or otherwise affected, they said.
"We are making a full assessment of the losses, which may take a week or more. But so far it looks like that the extent [of damage] is within a manageable limit," an official said.
"However, many areas remain out of reach and may have suffered wider damage," the official supervising relief operations in southeastern areas of the country that bore the brunt of the storm said.
The government has launched a huge rescue and relief operation in areas devastated on Monday. Army, naval and police units joined thousands of volunteers tanning out across the coastal regions.
The Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina Hasina, yesterday flew to affected areas she could not reach on her first trip on Tuesday.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh should increase the number of cyclone shelters on the coast from 700 to at least 2,000 to cope with major disasters in future, one official said.
"We are not appealing for international help but of course I'll welcome [it] if anyone offers to assist," she said on Tuesday. She urged Bangladeshis to donate generously to a relief fund.
Newspapers said the cyclone had killed between 350 and 500 people, and at least 5,000 were injured.
The official figure for injuries was "thousands".
Agriculture officials said the country's rice crop largely escaped damage.
Low lying Bangladesh is prone to devastation from cyclones. A storm in 1991 killed at least 138,000 people and left millions homeless.